Writer's Wednesday: It's NaNo prep time

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I'm most of a day late with my Wednesday post for the simple reason that I lost track of the days again. This is a nice problem to have, especially as it's because I'm back on the road again, this time hanging in Maine with a friend, enjoying the fall colors (but that overnight flight cost me a day, somehow. Not sure how that worked...).

In any case, it's time for my annual (more or less) post about preparing for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and plotting vs. pantsing. In so many aspects of my life, I like to fly by the seat of my pants. On my recent road trip, I seldom knew where I would stop until I got there. Even while backpacking in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, I didn't try to stick too closely to a plan, going instead where it seemed to make sense given the weather (on other sorts of trips, I do like to know exactly where I'm going and why, but that's a different story).

We've been here before, though. Writing a mystery with no plan beyond "someone is dead and someone killed them" has led to some serious messes masquerading as manuscripts. So as I approach NaNo, which I love as a way to give myself extra momentum in drafting my novels (meet those word goals! Keep up with your friends! Watch that little line climb up the graph!), I'm back in the throes of planning the next outing for Seffi Wardwell and her friends at Smelt Point.

I'd like to say that after 10 novels (11, counting the one I'm ready to start editing) I have it wired. Do X, Y, and Z and poof! an outline! Sit down to write and follow that outline to a beautiful draft. I'd like to say it, but it would be a total lie. I feel like every time I'm *mostly* reinventing the process.

But only mostly. I have a few things I seem to be consistent about. I need a germ of an idea, usually having to do with finding the body, but that's not consistent--this time, it was an idea about a set of characters and who would end up dead. Sometimes it has been a title in search of a story (may of my Pismawallops PTA "Death By..." books started with titles). And I have a set of questions I pose to myself, and slowly fill in answers as they occur to me.

This isn't a complete list, and isn't necessarily one that would work for other writers (it's obviously aimed at planning a mystery, for one thing), but here are a few of the questions:

  • Who is the victim?
  • Who is the killer?
  • Why did they kill them?
  • Who else wanted them dead?
  • How did the victim die?
  • How do we eliminate the innocent suspects?

And, maybe the most important question: what is my main character's stake in finding the killer?

If I can answer all those questions in a convincing way, I'm well on my way to having a story. For best results, though, I need to keep going, and actually sketch out at least some of the stuff for that fuzzy middle of the story. In this case, I'm thinking about which of the red herrings get eliminated in which order (and how) as another way to guide my draft.

And then I sit down and start to write and so much of it goes out the window.

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2023
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Comments

  1. Jemima PettOctober 13, 2023 at 2:18 PM

    That’s wonderful insight. Good luck with Nano!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rebecca M. DouglassOctober 17, 2023 at 5:09 PM

      I'm not sure which insight you refer to: that I must know the MC's stake, or that when I start to write all my plans go out the window!

      Delete

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